Our next conference is scheduled for June 6-9, 2018 and will be hosted by Center for the Study of Inequality and Social Justice at Stony Brook University. Click here for the Call for Papers.
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WCSA at ASA’s
Class cultures were a hot topic at the American Sociological Association conference a couple of weeks ago, not just because Michele Lamont is the new ASA president and she made “Culture and Inequalities” the overall conference theme, but also because 3 Working-Class Studies Association members worked to increase awareness of WCSA and all of our opportunities among the sociologists.
Jessi Streib, Allison Hurst, and Betsy Leondar-Wright (and their publishers) gave out many copies of a Class Cultures Caucus flyer with information about WCSA and the newly formed Class Cultures Caucus.
These three also organized a get-together over dinner which was well-attended. Some WCSA members and attenders came (including Lisa McKenzie, Colby King, Debbie Warnock, Jenny Stuber), but also people new to our network, including Joan Williams, author of White Working Class.
In the spirit of WCSA Treasurer Ken Estey’s encouragement to “go forth and multiply,” participants went out and encouraged interested sociologists to get involved with WCSA! The organizers gathered a list of over 30 people newly interested in WCSA. Jessi shared an inspiring description at the dinner for how great the WCSA conferences are, and we hope we may see some new people come to Stony Brook next year as a result.
Besides info on the next WCSA conference, the journal, the blog, the Caucus, Working-Class Academics and Class Action, participants also shared a call for papers that other WCSA members might be interested in. This CfP is for a mini-conference on Class and Culture convened by Annette Lareau and Elliot Weininger at the Eastern Sociological Society in February in Baltimore.
The Class Cultures Caucus founders (Barb Jensen, Jack Metzgar and Jeff Torlina as well as sociologists Jessi, Allison, and Betsy ) will come be working on plans to encourage some of those new folks to get more involved with WCSA. In the meantime, please continue to encourage other folks to get more involved with WCSA.
Arner Interviewed about Class and Academic Hiring in IHE
Lynn Arner, a WCSA member and Associate Professor in the Department of English at Brock University, was interviewed by James M. Van Wyck about her work studying how class backgrounds and gender shape the careers of English professors. The interview was published today by Inside Higher Ed.
In the article, Van Wyck writes that, “Arner’s work complements a growing body of research examining the clunky apparatuses by which higher education seeks to diversify the professoriate.” Read more here.
MacLean’s Democracy in Chains Sparks Uproar
Nancy MacLean‘s new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, has sparked an “uproar” according to a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. She read to a standing-room only audience at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham to kickoff her book tour. For more information, you can listen to interviews at Democracy Now! and at NPR’s WUNC 91.5.
WCSA Elections 2017-2018
Thanks to all those who voted in this year’s election and those who agreed to be nominated. We would also like to offer a special thanks to Maria Dokes for tabulating the ballots.
Here’s our line-up of officers for 2017-2018:
Steering Committee:
President: Terry Easton, University of North Georgia
Past-President: Michele Fazio, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
President-Elect: Cherie Rankin, Heartland Community College
Secretary: Courtney Maloney, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
Treasurer: Ken Estey, Brooklyn College
At-large Members:
Scott Henkel, University of Wyoming
Colby King, Bridgewater State University
Asia Muhammad, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Christine Walley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Elections Committee:
Jeremy Baker, Columbus State Community College, University of New Mexico, and Ashford University
Jackie Gabriel, Western State Colorado University
Lisa Kirby, Collin College
Working-Class Academics Section:
Chair: Mara Fridell, University of Manitoba
Chair-Elect: Debbie Warnock, Bennington College
Past-Chair: Allison Hurst, Oregon State University
Final call for WCSA Elections
Be sure to submit your ballots for the WCSA 2017 Elections. The deadline is Monday, July 17.
Popular Revolt and the Global Working Class
The second issue of the Journal of Working-Class Studies is now available.
WCSA 2017 Elections are Underway
Be sure to submit your ballots for the WCSA 2017 Elections. The deadline is Monday, July 17.
Arner Wins Grant for Project on Working-Class Women in the Professoriate
Lynn Arner, an Associate Professor of English at Brock University and a WCSA member, won a multi-year grant for her project “Working-Class Women in the Professoriate,” a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This project involves conducting an extensive survey of English professors in Canada and the U.S., a survey designed to uncover the ways in which working-class female academics negotiate a different terrain in the profession than their working-class male counterparts and than middle-class colleagues, male or female. One of the goals of the survey is to document tracking in hiring patterns in the professoriate, tracking according to gender, class, and institutional pedigree. Lynn plans to publish her survey results in a pair of articles and will also use the survey material in the book she is currently writing on gender and class in the professoriate.
Democracy in Chains
Nancy MacLean, William Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University and former president of the Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA), has published a new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.
“This book is mesmerizing. Rarely have I encountered a work that speaks to such significant issues, with evidence rooted in conclusive new sources. In clear prose, MacLean reveals how a public once committed to social responsibility and egalitarian values became persuaded that only an unregulated free market could protect ‘liberty’ and ‘choice.’ Because of this, our once cherished democracy is now subject to attack. Everyone who wants to understand today’s confrontational politics should read this important book, now.”
—Alice Kessler-Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America
“It’s happening: the subversion of our democratic system from within. How did the political Right do it? Nancy MacLean tells the long-overlooked story of the political economist who developed the playbook for the Koch brothers. James McGill Buchanan merged states rights’ thinking with free market principles and helped to fashion the inherently elitist ideology of today’s Republican Party. Professor MacLean’s meticulous research and shrewd insights make this a must-read for all who believe in government ‘by the people.’”
—Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
